quad core, dual core all around the dale.

[dancingleaf]

regarding the latest computer melt down.

spoke with my sister - she's my usual go to on this.

she says what I really need is an external hard drive back up 1TB  at least & this should cost me around... $100. or so.  If not just buy the components,  the memory and a case - and put them together - it's cheaper that way.

for a new system... I should decide what I want to spend and then shop tiger direct or new egg?  She thinks my new system should have at minimum 8GB of memory, dual core.

Popped in to Future shop on Saturday since everything was closed on Friday and Sunday.  The salesman there seems to think I need a quad core with 4 GB memory.  at... $600 plus tax. 

I was kind of hoping to get away with $400? or so?

what do I do on my computer...

internet
wordprocessing
business accounts
music download
music storage (about 3000 songs at the moment)
music editting
photos/photo editting
video/video editting a little bit.
burn discs music/video

no games, no downloading movies.

help?

Comments

[sacramentalist.livejournal.com]

You don't need much in terms of a computer. You want a laptop, right?

Some dual-cores are faster than quad. It has to do with the memory speed. Older CPU's are hot. Traditionally, AMD CPU's are faster, but are ovens.

How is your vision? Do you like larger screens? I'd love a netbook, but the screen is to small for me. Small screen and slow CPU = They're not great for photo-editing.

RAM is cheap. 4/8 Gig would be good. Make sure the machine has Windows 7, as Vista is a stinker.

It's hard to comparison shop computers from Best Buy. Manufacturers give them models with their own model number (ie, I have an HP DV6426 I bought open-box from BB) , so you don't see the exact same model anywhere else. Fortunately, enough people buy from BB that if they have a gripe, you'll see it in a Google search.

For mail order, NCIX.com is a good option as well.

[dancingleaf.livejournal.com]

no I hate laptops.

I adore my oversize ergo keyboard and am not going to give it up if I don't have to. If it turns out I have to go laptop to get cheaper than I will but I won't like it.

My current monitor is still good, although.. a few years old - they measure on the diagonal right? 19" and my sound system is great. J's laptop - the sound is for crap.
I was hoping just to replace the tower...

[sacramentalist.livejournal.com]

That's cool. You don't have to worry as much about heat and weight with a desktop. One other snag with laptops is they break. So you pretty much have to get a complete-care warranty.

[dancingleaf.livejournal.com]

NCIX - nice site - thanks.

is BB my best option? the guy at FShop told me they'd match/beat prices but then I'd run into the same issue - not the same model since BB assigns their own model #

so - if it is a desktop does it matter if it is an oven? because in theory it should have lots of air circulation.

okay - I quit. I have too much to do today to stare at computer screens and shop for unicorns and other mythical beasties.

[sacramentalist.livejournal.com]

Laptops avoid heat (and battery drain) by underclocking the CPU. My laptop by default will run at half the CPU usage, just because.

I'll take a look at some desktops when I get some time. I took a look at Dell's latest desktops, but the inexpensive ones use pentium-duos. zzzz.